Barts Boat Club takes on 5000km challenge

Inspired by other boat clubs around the country, Barts and the London Boat Club wanted to give themselves a challenge to keep up their training whilst group sessions are cancelled.

90 of their members worked as a team to run, walk, cycle or row - on a machine - to raise £1,000 for our COVID-19 appeal.

Barts and the London Boat Club is the oldest sports club at the medical school we support - Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

During lockdown, the club adapted their training as they weren’t able to row together as usual. Instead of training sessions on the water, they were focusing on strength training, running and cycling.

In order to keep the team’s sense of community alive during lockdown, Jess, the club captain set her team a challenge- to complete 5000km over 7 days. These miles could be walking, running, cycling or using the rowing machine. To help reach their target, they reached out to the alumni to take part and the team managed to average around 800km per day from over 90 participants. This meant they passed their target a day early!

As the partner medical school for Barts Health NHS Trust, it was natural to support our emergency COVID-19 campaign, helping staff across the hospitals. They have asked friends and family to donate to their JustGiving page and promoted their fundraising on their social media. They have raised over £1,700.

Jess says: “It was amazing to see the club and alumni really push themselves and it was great that so many people got involved with the challenge, especially knowing that the money raised was going to help the staff on the front line in the hospitals that we receive teaching in.”

Well done to all involved!

If you have been inspired to fundraise for our NHS, please contact us or set up a fundraising page here.

Our COVID Emergency Appeal is helping us provide urgent funds for staff who are working tirelessly across Barts Health NHS Trust. Donations are being used in many ways across our hospitals - from 3D-printed visors to protect front line staff, to iPads for isolated patients to speak with their loved ones.